Monday, June 18, 2007

Disappearing cities around the world

Nature is taking back its territory - in some cases, quite dramatically. Forbes has got a rather nice slide-show of cities around the world that are threatened with extinction.

San Francisco (US) has a 75% chance of being struck by a major earthquake of magnitude 7 or above by 2086, according to a researcher at UC Davis. Timbuktu is being engulfed by sands. And, seen from the air, Banjul, capital of Gambia, looks like a load of cardboard boxes that are about to be carried away by the ocean.

But possibly the most striking story of all comes from Mexico City, which is apparently sinking into the aquifer upon which it sits. The aquifer is also the city's main source of drinking water, so each time one of its 20 million inhabitants takes a drink of water, the city sinks a tiny bit more. This has caused some parts of the city to drop 9 meters in the last 100 years.

Can you think of any other examples of cities that are being gobbled up by their environment?

It's not quite a city, but the oasis town of Huacachina in Peru is being downed in sand as nearby metropolis Ica drains its underground source.

Are you sure the word "best" is the right word in this context? It almost sounds like you're pleased by what you've discovered. I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but I think "alarming" is a better description :-)

Dutch cities, such as Gouda, are also "sinking", mainly because of the contstant need to drain the low laying land. Then, the lands sinks even more and draining needs to be equaly stronger. The drained land then "thickens" under the weight of the towns.

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